our family to the dauphine, the idea of working the
handkerchiefs was entertained, and some designs of exquisite beauty and
neatness had been prepared. They were not simple, vulgar, unmeaning
ornaments, such as the uncultivated seize upon with avidity on account
of their florid appearance, but well devised drawings, that were
replete with taste and thought, and afforded some apology for the
otherwise senseless luxury contemplated, by aiding in refining the
imagination, and cultivating the intellect. She had chosen one of the
simplest and most beautiful of these designs, intending to transfer it
to my face, by means of the needle.

The first stitch was made just as the clocks were striking the hour of
five, on the morning of the fourteenth of April, 1831. The last was
drawn that day two months, precisely as the same clocks struck twelve.
For four hours Adrienne sat bending over her toil, deeply engrossed in
the occupation, and flattering herself with the fruits of her success.
I learned much of the excellent child's true character in these brief
hours. Her mind wandered over her hopes and fears, recurring to her
other labors, and the prices she received for occupations so wearying
and slavish. By the milliner, she was paid merely as a common
sewing-girl, though her neatness, skill and taste might well have
entitled her to double wages. A franc a day was the usual price for
girls of an inferior caste, and out of this they were expected to find
their own lodgings and food. But the poor revolution had still a great
deal of private misery to answer for, in the way of reduced wages.
Those who live on the frivolities of mankind, or, what is the same
thing, their luxuries, have two sets of victims to plunder--the
consumer, and the real producer, or the operative. This is true where
men are employed, but much truer in the case of females. The last are
usually so helpless, that they often cling to oppression and wrong,
rather than submit to be cast entirely upon the world. The marchande de
mode who employed Adrienne was as rusee as a politician who had
followed all the tergiversations of Gallic policy, since the year '89.
She was fully aware of what a prize she possessed in the unpracticed
girl, and she felt the importance of keeping her in ignorance of her
own value. By paying the franc, it might give her assistant premature
notions of her own importance; but, by bringing her down to fifteen
sous, humility could be inculcated,